Up the Sunbeam

-- I will continue with the series on brokenness later in the week, but this weekend my heart is filled with Easter! Passover . . . God's foreshadowing of His plan to send Heaven's perfect Lamb to shed the blood of the final sacrifice. Passover was the picture that prepared Israel for the real deliverance that would come to all who would put the Lamb's blood over the doorposts of their hearts. In the Passover Seder is a joyous little song that catalogs ancient highlights of God's leading of His people, Israel.  After each remembrance of God's action on their behalf comes the Hebrew word Dayenu,  which means something close to "it would have been enough" or "it would have sufficed for us."  They say it again and again, Dayenu . They sing the song, with its repeating chorus Dayenu, Dayenu, Dayenu.   From the plagues He sent against Egypt to sparing their firstborn in the final plague, from opening the Red Sea to destroying their enemies, and ...

-- In Part 1 I posed some questions about brokenness .  I related the fact that I have some concerns about the concept of brokenness, which has recently become extremely popular in some Christian circles.  Let me say here that it is not at all my intention to step on any toes or to be critical in any way of what others have said or written on the subject.  I started this series because I was troubled by some of the trends I've been seeing and I wanted to study it out myself before following or rejecting those trends.  My only purpose is to seek a clearer understanding of what the Bible really says and to get a better handle on what brokenness is and isn't.  I pray that we can, together, follow the example set by the Bereans who "examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Acts 17:11 NIV One of the verses most used as the basis for ideas about brokenness is this: "The sacrifices of God are a   br...

-- Brokenness. Brokenness is quite a favorite word in some circles of Christendom these days.  Google it and you'll find pages of results to scroll through. It seems to have many uses and multiple definitions according to the people who are passionate about it. People submit to it, aspire to it, seek it, and try to hasten it. I'm not sure all of them are on the right track. There are a number of passages in the Bible that people point to as their basis for their commitment to brokenness, but I'm concerned that there may be some misunderstanding and misapplication afoot. Our understanding of the person of God through our study of His word is about as important as it gets for our Christian walk, not only for ourselves, but for the people who don't know Him yet--what does our understanding of God say to the people who know us?  It is vital that we present God as accurately as we know how to a world of people who are predisposed by our postmodern culture to be ...

-- -- Most mountaintops are thin places for me.  If you asked me what God smells like, I would tell you He smells of pungent pine and crisp, snow-chilled mountain air.  His power is in the wild wind , His whisper in the flowers-in-miniature that grow, impossible, on top of the world. I have known thin places on horseback, in basketball games, in babies’ first smiles and at rock concerts—God comes close to play and breathe and cheer and celebrate with us. I have known thin places in the depths of heartache too . . . . . . At 17 when twice in one year I dealt with the death of someone close who was too young to die—thin places to be sure, where God taught me to sing through the darkness, that the only way through is through . . . To read the rest of my story, come with me over to Mary DeMuth's site where I am honored to offer this as a guest post for her Thin Places series! Mary is an insightful and prolific author whose work I have come to admire so much! Her own...

- A patchwork of color captures my attention in my side view mirror as the road flows away like a grey river behind me. Day after day in the well-worn groove of my many trips on this road, I watch as the colors change and intensify. I keep thinking that I must come and take pictures in this spot before this scene as it is right now is gone. I don't know how many times I've taken pictures of seemingly permanent things, only to find that something unexpectedly changed and I would have missed it forever if I hadn't taken the shot when I did. Finally, on a suddenly sunny day after a string of storms, I follow through on those thoughts. The scene from a distance and the scene up close, it is all so unspeakably beautiful to me. The colors, the textures, the complimentary nature of all the parts into one glorious canvas like something Thomas Kinkade would want to paint. What must be the nature of the exquisite Imagination from whence this beauty springs? Now THAT'S someon...

-- Standing atop the very spine of North America, the Continental Divide, I drink in the majesty of what for me, is an always-place.  This view, these rocks, this air runs through my life like a favorite melody that recurs again and again in a movie soundtrack.  It's a place I always seem to go back to, a place I never get tired of, a place I miss deeply when I'm far away. High places are always like that for me. I have never met a mountain I didn't love --the higher and more jagged and snow-covered, the better.  Shimmering with an unearthly glory, mountains are rife with evidence of an all-powerful and monumentally grand Creator-God . I am only one of the more than 3 million people who visit these mountains in a year.  Whether they know it or not . . . whether they recognize Him or not . . . each and every one, in some way, feels God on those heights. Ancient people felt God's presence on high places too. Sadly, though they felt Him on peaks and high mou...